Monday, September 15, 2008

The Taxi Driver!

Got another wild and wooly weirdie for you today from the Jan/Feb 1953 issue of Mister Mystery #9. Is it just me or does anyone else think that Daniel Clowes must have read this one as a kid? The title lettering, the sweaty close-ups, some of this just has that great Eightball vibe to me. Maybe he was a fan of Tony Mortellaro?

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Live from the film set of Werewolf Cemetery its Todd, dressed for indie horror film success in his brand new THOIA tee shirt. But watch out Todd, some of those severed wolf head props look a little too real for--- AIEEEE!It’s still alive!!! Run! Run!!! Someone run for help… someone else call the FX and make-up people and tell them they’re no longer needed!! Keep the cameras rolling--- and run!!!

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I love a good post-apocalypse, especially when it's presented as offhandedly as this one was. Why have mushroom clouds and road warriors and vine-covered skyscrapers and punk cannibals? So overt. All you really need to do is show a black-rainy and heavily bilious nuclear winter for two pages and two panels before finally dropping the hint in dialog that the sun is finally setting.

Oh, and hairy green and blue fanged mutants, of course.

And speaking of that: nice photo Todd. I see you have been bitten by the Photoshop. Beware of the copyright circle on your palm, it is the harbinger of doom.

For some sick reason I am reminded of the horrid episode of Scooby Doo where the werewolves and vampires square off against each other and fight but since they keep biting the other ones they just keep changing back and forth from vampire to werewolf and back again. And of course now I can't remember how the damn thing ends!

I NEVER GET TIRED OF THE OLD MONSTER SWITCHEROO LIKE THIS. ATLAS DID IT ALL THE TIME. AND THIS STORY DOES FEEL MORE MODERN THAN MOST 50'S TALES AND YOU NAILED IT WITH CLOWES ESPECIALLY THAT SPLASH AND TITLE AND PANELS 2 AND 3 ON THE SECONDPAGE.

GREAT PIC OF TODD HA! THE LIGHTING REMINDS ME OF CREEPSHOW WHEN THE CRATE MONSETR WOULD ATTACK SOMEONE

I find myself wondering what kinds of Easter Eggs we're missing in that detailed front page on the splash. The fact that rain is forecast for the ENTIRE COUNTRY? The byline for "H. Kantor"? The 4-cent price? Volume 15, #71? It MEANS something, dammit!

The sweatiness of the main character does indeed invite the Crumb comparisons, though to me he looks more like Groucho-with-a-Fro. But both would have a weakness for a side-braid, a Daisy-Mae blouse, and some striped frill-hemmed bloomer skorts, that much is obvious.

And on pg 3--holy crap! That taxi-coach is HUGE! Daisy and the Werewolf are absolutely DWARFED by its massiveness!

Great art in this one--I particularly like the shading at the bottom of the last page, leading up to the reveal. The vampire/werewolf war rages on...

So much irony in this story- he goes to all that trouble to take a train to some sparrow fart town in the middle of nowhere, gets off the train to find an ancient taxi service, transforms into a werewolf, gets ready to devour the hot babe, only to have it all shot to hell when he discovers she is a damn vampire! Things just never work out right in the horror comics. That's why I love them!!!

Your Horrible Host of Horrors

(aka Steve Banes) Editor / co-editor of IDW's Chilling Archives of Horror Comic Books: ZOMBIES, RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES, and DEVIL TALES, as well as co-host of the bi-monthly HAUNTED HORROR comic series and HAUNTED LOVE miniseries. (All image scans and photography by me from items found in my own personal, putrid collection-- except where noted.)

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